


In My Dreams You're Touching My Face

by RobinsonsWereHere



Category: Call the Midwife
Genre: Babies, Dream Sequence, F/M, Grief/Mourning, post-7x07, this is the least amount of tags ive had on a fic ever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-24 19:48:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22323454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobinsonsWereHere/pseuds/RobinsonsWereHere
Summary: He is sitting in the hospital with his wife. This he knows, this he remembers, this part feels real. And if what happens next does not feel quite right, he will blame his belief on desperation and grief.
Relationships: Barbara Gilbert/Tom Hereward
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13





	In My Dreams You're Touching My Face

**Author's Note:**

> I churned this out after watching 7x07 bc I am in PAIN and I want you to be in pain too, dear reader

He is sitting in the hospital with his wife. This he knows, this he remembers, this part feels real. And if what happens next does not feel quite right, he will blame his belief on desperation and grief.

“Tom, we have a daughter,” Barbara says to him, her voice tired but so, so happy. “Oh, look at her.”

Barbara’s fingers are red like blood. This seems wrong, stirs some deep discomfort in his subconscious. But nothing is wrong, it’s only that the baby hasn’t been bathed yet. Of course she hasn’t; Barbara would be far too eager to hold her daughter.

“She’s perfect,” Tom whispers, stroking a finger over the baby’s damp cheek. “What shall we call her?”

“I like Eve,” Barbara murmurs. “The first beginning of life.”

Tom can’t help but chuckle. “She’ll never forget she’s a curant’s daughter.” He tilts his head and looks his wife in the eye, cupping her cheek. When his hand meets her skin he swears the shadows of his fingers look like bruises, like a bloody rash, but he blinks and everything is right once again. “Eve Barbara?”

Barbara smiles her beautiful, bright smile and turns her head to kiss his palm. “Eve Barbara Hereward. I love it.”

“She’s so wonderful,” Tom whispers. He keeps looking from his daughter to his wife, unable to look away from either for more than a few minutes. “Barbara, I love you both so much.”

“Oh, Tom.” Barbara’s eyes are shiny with tears, but alight with love. “I love you too.”

Overcome with emotion, Tom leans forward to press his forehead against hers. Eve is between them, a perfectly content and sleepy baby. For those blissful few moments, Tom holds his entire life in his arms.

And then the alarm clock goes off.

Tom looks up in confusion, and as he blinks, Barbara and Eve and the hospital room disappear. He finds himself staring up at the ceiling of his and Barbara’s bedroom. He rolls over in bed only to be hit with the sudden, painful realization that he’s alone.

All alone.

Barbara is gone. The daughter of his dream will never exist. Mere nights ago, he had hugged his wife in the hospital bed, kissed her, told her he loved her. But it had not been so happy an occasion as a birth.

Barbara is gone, and he is all alone.

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what you thought with a comment or kudos, or come find me on tumblr at nursebarbarahereward !


End file.
